In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

Eric Alterman has an outstanding column in The Nation on how the media’s mean girls (of all genders) develop the narratives they use to bring down the presidential candidates they take a dislike to. With examples of what they did to Gore in 2000, and what they’re doing to Obama and Edwards right now. Two […]

This week’s smash-hit viral video is a cheery little mash-up in which a Monty Python classic gets its peanut butter in the chocolate of the modern-day healthcare crisis. … and here’s the handy action link. If William Jennings Bryan were alive today, he might say something about not crucifying mankind upon a Cross of […]

General Petraeus says that “victory” in Iraq will require 9-10 more years. I’m trying to imagine how ten more years of bloody occupation can possibly work out to a victory. More on that subject here. A bill has been introduced in Venezuela to restrict baby names to a list of 100 approved choices. “The billâ€™s […]

1,850 U.S. citizens were recently killed in an entirely preventable disaster. It’s been a while since I’ve updated this record â€” 37 days, to be exact. On July 18 I started keeping count of the 50 U.S. citizens who die every day because they can’t afford health care, according to this statistic. So in a […]

Scary stuff: There’s a lot of buzz and speculation that starting just after Labor Day, the Bush administration is going to be rolling out a major PR campaign to pave the way for war with Iran. See here and here for starters. Grand Moff Texan at DKos says the Bushies will be using the same […]

Bush has suddenly decided that the Iraq occupation is kinda like Vietnam after all, but of course he’s careful to draw the wrong conclusions from the comparison. The article quotes American University historian Allan Lichtman as saying that Bush’s spin on the situation “is not revisionist history. It is fantasy history.” On a related note, […]

So I’ve been slammed with work for the last week or so, and I haven’t had a chance to update this count in a full seven days. During that time, about 350 more Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care. That brings the total count to approximately 700 people who have died just […]

Here’s a good example of why I like this guy so much. He gets it. And he lets you know that he gets it. This is Edwards speaking at the Gnomedex Tech conference in 2006: … and from Monday night’s debate: Via this most excellent diary at Daily Kos.

About 50 Americans have died since yesterday because they couldn’t afford health care. That brings the total to 350 people who have died thanks to our profit-focused health care system just since I started keeping this count, six days ago. If 350 US citizens had died in a plane crash this week, we’d be hearing […]

“Iraq hasn’t even begun”: Writing in the LA Times, Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, examines the long-term consequences of the debacle in Iraq, and concludes, “Looking back over a quarter of a century of chronicling current affairs, I cannot recall a more comprehensive and avoidable man-made disaster.” Digby on […]

About 300 Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care since I started this count five days ago. About 50 more will die today. Since this is turning into a kind of daily witness, I suppose I should document my source for the statistic this is based on. Michael Moore says in Sicko, and […]

I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the whole Moore vs. Gupta dustup while it was happening (much to the relief of the scale!), but here’s a little post-mortem wrap-up. First off, some links in case you missed any or all of it (all video links except the second one): Round One: Michael […]